Cross Country: Conner leads way at NCAA Qualifier

At a National Collegiate Athletic Association qualifying meet that senior runner Jordan Daniel called “pouring and sloppy,” the University of Maine cross country teams ran hard in hopes of earning a shot at the national championship meet.

“Some of the puddles were mid-calf, and the mud was often as deep as their shoes,” said senior captain Brenna Walsh, who did not race. “I got almost as muddy running around watching them race as they did racing.”

With fierce competition from all over the northeast flocking to Franklin Park in Boston, the women’s team, led by regional and conference champion Corey Conner, came away with a hard-fought 10th place showing out of 40 teams.

Conner finished ninth with a time of 22 minutes, 29 seconds on the 6-kilometer course. The difference between her and first-place finisher Katie Hursey of Syracuse was 32 seconds.

The NCAA championship field is comprised of 255 runners. The top two teams from each of the nine regions ­— in this case Syracuse University and Providence College — are automatically in, while 13 teams are given at-large bids. Given there are seven runners on a team, that accounts for 217 runners. Eighteen runners are awarded bids by virtue of being the top four individual finishers who did not receive an automatic team bid. Twenty more runners are awarded individual bids based on NCAA selection.

After removing Syracuse and Providence from the results, Conner, in ninth, is the fourth finisher, behind the third place runner from Iona College and the sixth and eighth place runners, both from Harvard University.

Boosting the team to 10th place fell on the shoulders of senior Jordan Daniel (71st, 23:59), junior Allie Conner (74th, 24:01), senior Vanessa Letourneau (79th, 24:10) and freshman Whitney Chamberlain (119th, 24:45).

“The girls really slogged it out … and were really happy when they finished,” Walsh said. “It will be one they’ll always remember.”

The women’s team exceeded most expectations this year, being pegged fifth in the conference before racing to second place two weeks ago and earning 10th at New Englands last month. Few people saw Conner’s meteoric rise coming on the heels of an excellent freshman campaign, but this season has been one for the record books. Despite losing a dependable scorer and leadership in Brenna Walsh, the Black Bears will find a way to keep things rolling next season with freshman runner Whitney Chamberlain, a regular scorer this year, taking on a larger role.

“I think this year our team really put Maine cross country on the radar and I hope we can only improve on that some more next year,” Conner said. “Now looking ahead to indoor, I think we have a really strong base to go from and I think some more exciting things are bound to happen for us.”

This meet marks the end of a rough 2009 season for the Black Bear men. After losing some experience in senior Chris Harmon before the season began, their most potent scoring threat, sophomore Riley Masters, went down with a knee injury midway through the season. Masters is back to training and hopes to be ready for the indoor season. Harmon, who dealt with bouts of viral meningitis and MRSA over the summer, is easing back into running but will not be prepared to compete in the coming months.

The men’s team did have a chance to show off some of its young talent this year, showing signs that Mark Lech will have a nice corps of accomplished runners next year. Along with Masters, sophomore Dave Currier and freshman Taylor Phillips scored consistently for the Black Bears this season, and sophomore Spencer McElwain has come up big late in the season.

At Franklin Park, the men finished 21st, with senior Miles Bartlett blazing the trail for the Black Bears. Bartlett finished the 10-kilometer course in 33:55. Close behind, Currier finished 105th in a time of 34:00, and McElwain finished 110th in 34:06. Rounding out the scoring team were senior captain Corey Bean (131st, 34:25) and freshman Taylor Phillips (160th, 35:02).

“It was a crowded race, to be sure, but after the first mile or so it was thinned out enough so that I could find my teammates and run with them,” Bean said.

Syracuse won the men’s title as well, with Iona, led by overall winner Ryan Sheridan (30:36), taking second.

The men will be sending Bartlett off after this season, but Bean, who did not begin competition until his sophomore year, has an additional year of eligibility and will mull over the decision to compete as he looks at graduate schools.

“I have mixed feelings about how I performed as a runner this season,” Bean said. “I had a stretch from UMass Amherst to Murray Keatinge where I was running really well. On the other hand, I did awful at New Englands and Conferences and I think I should have done better at Regionals.”

“The positive note about my bad performances is that I’ve learned a lot about how to prevent myself from running such awful performances in the future,” Bean added.

The NCAA championship meet will be held in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 23.

CORRECTION:
This article originally stated that seniors Jordan Daniel and Vanessa Letourneau would not be returning to the women's cross country team next year. Daniel said of her plans next year, "I have a full year of eligibility and [I am] definitely coming back for cross [country]. And once indoor is done this year, I'll make my decision for the spring semester of 2011." Daniel also stated that Letourneau plans to return for cross country as well.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009, 8:21 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.